1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to virtual machines in a computing environment, and more specifically relates to dynamically optimizing placement of virtual machines on physical hosts in a computing environment using one or more policies that define aggressiveness settings for the optimizer.
2. Background Art
Cloud computing is a common expression for distributed computing over a network and can also be used with reference to network-based services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS is a cloud based service that provides physical processing resources to run virtual machines (VMs) as a guest for different customers. The virtual machine may host a user application or a server.
A computing environment, such as a cloud computing environment, may have a large number of physical machines that can each host one or more virtual machines. Prior art cloud management tools allow a system administrator to assist in determining a specific physical host in which to place or deploy a new virtual machine. After deployment, the cloud management tools optimize the system by moving one or more virtual machines to a different physical host. The placement of the new virtual machine initially and during optimization may be determined by a placement policy selected by the system administrator. Prior art placement policies include fixed aggressiveness policies that define limited settings for aggressiveness of optimization.